


Tea Shop

by moricat



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bakery and Coffee Shop, Childhood Friends, Coffee Shops, Eremin - Freeform, Eremin Week, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Friendship, erearu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 08:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8616040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moricat/pseuds/moricat
Summary: Fluffy sweet drabble for Eremin Week Day 2 prompt: Coffee Shop!~ (However, I really wanted to make it main!verse and there’s no way they’d have coffee inside the walls so I switched it to a tea shop, with the same basic principals lol); Takes place some time after Chapter 87.Enjoy if you can! This was SO fun to write!





	

Saturday was the 104th’s first day off in what felt like ages since their embarkment to Shiganshina… It was a well earned day off indeed. Mikasa had a hobby of making intricately elegant coin purses when the trainees got rained out over the years, and Jean enthusiastically bought them all when he found out, allowing her to share some humble profits with her little family, consisting of Eren and Armin. Armin opted to spend his share of the marks alone in a little tearoom in Sina, surrounded by the smell of fresh brewed tea, little cakes, schönbrots, strudels, scones, berry, vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon, and a million other romantic aromatic scents in this warm cozy environment. He’d always been a big dreamer, never short of the tour de grande dream he shared with Eren of exploring the world, but near the more practical lobe of his brain he’d also dreamt of having the spare change to try a fancy drink in a nice tea shop like this one day…

He dipped his finger in the whipped snow créme in his mug, which tasted as sweet and airy as he’d always imagined when he saw people consume it from behind the windows of shops like these as a child. The way it melted into the vanilla, cinnamon, and cocoa flavored milk stimulated his senses endlessly. He took his first sip and smiled to himself… but that smile suddenly faded away when he looked over to the empty seat in front of him at his little table for 2 by the window… _‘Maybe a day alone wasn’t what I needed after all’_ he thought. _‘I miss Eren… I wish he were here to taste this with me…’_ He took another sad sip and broke apart the warm strudel he was having with it for a small bite.

He paused in distraction, however, for the sound of the bell on top of the shop door ringing as a new customer walked in. In-uniform, and senses aroused by the various sweet scents suddenly surrounding his nose, was Eren Yeager, in search of his beloved comrade. Eren was greeted warmly by the staff and customers who noted the Wings of Freedom on his jacket and recognized his face as the famous Titan savior they’d read about in the newspapers. It was strange to be welcomed as a hero rather than a joke to the public now for a Scouting Legion soldier… but it was such a welcome relief for Eren who was at last, no longer greeted as a freak wherever he went… Amidst the calamity, the staff insisted on giving him a freshly made strawberry strudel on the house and as Eren struggled to reply to everyone, his gaze scanned the shop until it finally landed on the person he was looking for… 

He smiled and Armin smiled back.

Eren finally managed to speak to the little crowd and announced, “Everyone, this man sitting before you is cadet Armin Arlert. My closest friend and fellow comrade. One of the army’s greatest weapons. I wouldn’t be here today without him, nor would we have taken back Wall Maria. I hope you treat him as kindly as you’ve treated me.”

Armin blushed so bashfully and humbly at the praise and received a round of applause for his service which he’d failed to mention himself anywhere. 

Eren took the empty seat in front of Armin as his own as the staff brought a free extra scone for Armin as well as the free strudel and menu for Eren. “Sorry, I know you don’t care for the attention… I just wanted to make sure you got your marks’ worth here… Hi, Armin.”

“Hi.” Armin beamed at his friend, finding that his eyes had accidentally locked onto his, both sort of losing themselves in each other for a strange moment…

“Did you decide what you want to order?” the kind waitress asked as she appeared, interrupting the moment.

“Ah, no not yet… What do you think, Armin?” 

“Mmm, Eren has a sweet tooth, ma’am, is there a drink that’s particularly richer than this one?” 

She thought for a second. “Our signature Heiße Schokolade is a little pricey since the ingredients are rare and expensive, but it’s extremely rich, it’s a thick hot chocolate with chocolate chip cookie crumbs mixed in, 2 marshmallows, and whipped snow créme on top. It comes with a chocolate chip cookie too. It’s popular among the upper class customers we get who order it for their children. I can give you at least a discount though, I know our manager would be glad to for the man who saved his sister’s family in Trost when he blockaded the wall’s breech.”

Eren hastily laid out the contents of his coin pouch. “Hold the cookie and if this is enough, then yes, please!”

The waitress took the payment and hurried off to put his order in.

“You’ll have an energy burst for weeks if you drink that, Eren.” Armin laughed.

Eren removed his jacket and hung it over the back of his chair “Good, I need it…”

Their eyes met again, beginning to slip back into that same trance until Armin broke the brief silence. “Try my drink. It’s a hot kakao with créme, vanilla, cinnamon and honey… The whipped snow créme is a dream…” he suggested, sliding his little mug across the table to Eren.

In the same fashion as Armin before him, Eren dipped his finger in the fluffy house of créme on top and placed it in his mouth, his tongue curling over it. 

Armin blushed at the site…

“Mmm.” Eren smiled approvingly before taking a sip… It amused him, as it tasted just like the kind of drink he imagined Armin would order… “That _is_ good…” he slid the mug back over to Armin and nibbled on his strudel. 

“It’s a lot of flavors at once… I could never have imagined such a taste just guessing at it as a kid….” he mused, his gaze turned down.

“Remember when we used to visit upper Trost together as kids? Hannes would let us tag along with him and run amuck and we would stand by the tea shop windows just like this one and imagine what everything we couldn’t afford tasted like…”

“Mhm.” Armin reminisced. “Candy shops, bakeries, toy stores, tea shops… wondering forever what we were missing.”

“Yeah… So… why’d you come here without inviting me today?”

Armin looked back into his gaze but was halted from speaking as the waitress came back with Eren’s order.

“Enjoy, sir!”

Eren’s eyes widened at the sight of the glorious chocolate beverage. It almost seemed like a sin he should have something so rich right in his grasp… 

Armin smiled to himself watching Eren, looking like a child gazing so purely at his big treat. 

Forgetting Armin was watching him for a moment, Eren seemed to enter a childlike mode and licked the snow créme and took an enthusiastic, less-than-sophisticated slurp of the drink. As the mug came back down on the table, Eren’s bright eyes sparked to match his smile, covered in the whipped créme. “Amazing!!!”

Armin’s hand flew up to his own lips as he chuckled at the sight.

Eren blushed and hid his lips behind his hand to lick them clean and wipe them with his sleeve… But he grinned when he finally looked up again to find Armin’s own smirking lips covered in the whipped snow créme from his own drink to match. “I always wondered what you’d look like with a mustache.” he laughed.

Armin licked his lips and wiped them clean with his napkin. “Oh yeah? And what’s the verdict?”

“I like you better clean faced.” Eren gave him a soft smile before taking another sip of his drink. 

Armin tossed a bashful smile out from his countenance as he shyly glanced outside the shop window…

Eren then slid his mug over to Armin so he could try it “…So… why didn’t you invite me here? Were you sick of me?”

Armin’s eyes widened, both at the powerful chocolatey richness of the drink over his tongue, and at Eren’s question. He swallowed quickly to answer. “–No, of course not…” he slid the drink back to Eren and his eyes drifted nervously. “I just… thought I should take some space from everyone to think by myself…”

“I see…”

“…I wanted you here, of course.”

“So I’m not just ‘everyone’ to you?”

Armin smiled at the bizarre thought. “No, of course not. You’re–…”

Eren looked up waiting eagerly for the thought to be completed.

Armin’s gaze caught Eren’s again. It was like a wonderful trap. “…You’re definitely, _definitely_ , more special to me than just ‘everyone'…”

Eren didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, but took it. “Alright then…” He sipped his drink, already a quarter way’s finished with it since it was a children’s beverage.

Armin sipped his own drink with a seemingly concerned look in his eye which refused to look back into Eren’s again.

Eren noted this and approached him again. “So… you came here to think, huh?”

“…Yes. About everything that’s happened… About… my situation…”

Eren’s gaze turned down to the table and his expression turned somber… “You’re mad at me, aren’t you?…”

“–Hnn?”

“Aren’t you?” He repeated quietly as he looked up at Armin with a pained sadness in his eyes.

Armin’s empathy for Eren’s feelings emanated out of his own. “No, how could I be mad at you?…”

“Because I begged them to make you like me… And now the weight of the world is on your shoulders too… You said you’ve never lied to me, so I hope you don’t start now, please… Tell me… do you resent me at all?…” he asked bluntly, reaching across the table and placing his finger tips over Armin’s.

Armin fell into his gaze yet again… “I don’t resent you, Eren… It’s just complicated… and scary… and stressful… I didn’t _wanna_ think about it today but… Y-yes, I’m rather upset that I’m a Titan… ’Savior of Humanity’ is my burden now, as you put it to the captain… But… I could never resent you. You saved my life. You wanted me here. You l– _care_ about me deeply, and wouldn’t accept my demise… Who could ever resent that?…”

Eren closed his eyes in shame…

“…Besides. I rather did the same to you back in Trost…”

Eren’s eyes opened again to look back in his.

“…” Armin’s blank frown became a smile as he chuckled at the irony. “So I guess we’re even now.” He slipped his hand further under Eren’s. 

“…In that case, if it’s alright, I’d… like us to vow something to each other, then…” Eren took Armins hands in his, while Armin listened on in wonder. “That for the rest of this war, for the rest of these shitty roles we have to fill… we’ll stick together. We’ll depend on each other, take care of each other, help each other, trust each other, believe in each other, and support each other until we free humanity together… I know you’ve already been doing that for me… God, I really don’t deserve you… but– I wanna make it clear that I vow that to you too… We’re in this together and I’m not leaving your side. And then when this is all over… we’ll make it to the ocean.”

“Okay… I vow that… on one condition…” Armin leaned forward and slipped his fingers in between Eren’s. “That when this war _is_  over… th- _that_ doesn’t stop. I want to be with you forever…” 

“Armin…”

Suddenly the waitress came and interrupted the moment, placing the bill on the table for Armin’s order. 

“A-ah… Here you are ma’am.” he said politely, anxiously fishing out his money for the order and her tip from his coin pouch, almost dizzy from the conversation he’d been having with Eren…

Eren sipped his drink, now three quarters of the way finished, and dipped his strudel in it for a sweeter bite.

“Thank you, have a nice day, cadets. We’re all proud of you.” she smiled.

Armin continued his cheery demeanor “Thanks so much, you too!”

Eren silently though happily nodded in agreement for her, raising his drink with cheer.

Once she left, Armin listened keenly for Eren’s answer while he slurped on what was left of his own drink as well…

Eren stroked his thumb over the rim of his warm mug, staring down into the creamy swirl of his hot chocolate… Although Armin didn’t notice it as he refused to look up at him, Eren had been unconsciously smiling to himself as certain thoughts ran through his head. “Hey… Armin… Do you remember that bakery we used to go to when we were kids, to watch them decorate the cakes on the turntables, and stack them into layers, and shape them for themed parties for the upper classed people… And we’d stand there outside their window for hours just mesmerized by how they did it; The way the cakes would spin as they iced them, the way they’d shape the fondants– right? Is that what it was called?”

“Yes.”

“Fondants… We’d wonder what they all tasted like… and you’d have a bunch of different ideas about it and come up with stories about who those cakes must be for, and that bastard who owned the shop wouldn’t even give us dirty peasant kids the free samples cuz he knew we couldn’t afford anything even if we liked it… or he thought it would tempt us to steal a cake if we did, or some horseshit like that…”

“And you finally got so mad you left me there on the sidewalk to run in and steal a few samples, then that guy chased us both all the way down the street and banned us from ever coming near it again. It was so ironic.” Armin laughed in guilty pleasure.

Eren grinned. “And it turned out that cake wasn’t even good!”

“It was a truly gross cake…”

“So I got us banned from the bakery for nothing.”

Armin’s laughter resumed “Yes, you did.”

Eren’s grin relaxed a bit “…Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay, I didn’t want anything to do with that bakery for the way they treated us anyhow.”

“Hmm…” Warm feelings washed over Eren as he looked down at his empty hands on the table by his drink… “You’ve always been my partner in crime, Armin…”

Armin blushed as he looked on at his companion.

“…I want that forever…” Eren finally confessed and gladly let his gaze get trapped in Armin’s again as his hands slid back over to his, interlacing their fingers. “I want you and me to be together, taking on the world one day at a time, musing on everything there is to think about, seeing everything there is to see… So, yes. Whatever’s out there, I want to be with you when this is all over.”

Armin’s lips parted as he simply stared, struggling to find the words to say. “…Then it’s a deal.” Breaking eye contact only for a second to free his left hand and pick up his drink, Armin raised his mug to toast.

Eren raised his in return, and with a clink of their cups, both of them downed what little was left of their drinks. 

Armin’s lip was coated in créme as his mug pulled away. Without skipping a beat at the sight, Eren arose from the table and hurried over to plant his lips on Armin’s, his tongue brushing over Armin’s top lip to lick it clean. He pulled away to check Armin’s expression.

Armin stared at him with wide sparkling eyes, and bright red cheeks, and immediately let his mug down so he could hold Eren and pulled him back in for another kiss. 

Cheers began to sound from behind Eren in celebration for the solider boys in love, but it sounded so faded and distant to them as they focused on losing themselves each other…

Finally, Eren pulled away and reached into his pants pocket for one last mark he’d saved from Mikasa’s generous gift. “Let’s go buy a piece of cake.”

Armin couldn’t stop smiling after what just happened. “Oh, Eren, you’re never going to recover from all this sugar…”

Eren held out his hand to raise Armin up out of his seat and met him with another kiss. “And now I get to taste something this sweet for the rest of my life.” He smirked, brushing his finger over Armin’s upper lip. "Let's go."

<3


End file.
